Meeting Notes - February 3, 2017

During the Feb. 3 community meetings with Sansar creators, various members of the Sansar development and marketing teams updated the community on the latest Sansar news and improvements, including:

New Sansar Release R6 - There was more discussion and feedback provided on the latest features and bug fixes in the Jan. 30 Sansar release. (See Release Notes for a summary of new features.)

Torley shared news of the new Audio Materials KB article, which explains how to set an object's audio material to add spatial audio realism. The article includes downloadable audio example comparisons.

Next Sansar Release R7 - Work is already underway on the next Sansar release, tentatively due in late February.

While specific details are not being announced yet, Product Director Jason Gholston teased that it would include support for user-uploaded scripts written in C#. However, expect limited documentation and APIs for the next release.

The Sansar team is also aiming to introduce facial blend shape and skin tone options for better avatar customization. There may be hat/hair selection, as well.

During both Q&A sessions, the community was able to provide feedback and bug reports on several other topics. Here is a summary of what was discussed:

Access controls for experiences (that give creators the ability to restrict or approve access) are expected in the second half of 2017, according to Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg (who attended the first meeting). The ability to mute individuals is also tentatively slated for late 2017.

The new “comfort zone” feature was discussed by the community. This new feature makes an avatar disappear from view if they get too close to another avatar. However, the feature does not currently mute the audio of someone once they enter the comfort zone. Expect more refinements to this safety feature, according to Ebbe.

When a product is sold, many creators will want the ability to automatically send updated versions or upgrades of purchased products to their existing customers. While there are some complications to be sorted out, Jason indicated that the Sansar team is aware of this request and is looking at the most appropriate way to implement it.

Efficient inventory management should be considered as The Sansar Store development continues. For example, a creator requested that there be Store categories that map to inventory folders for sorting.

Another creator asked about how scripts will be sold on The Sansar Store. Jason indicated that it will be awhile before that is supported, but ultimately it is likely that scripts will be treated like any other asset for sale.

Some creators reported that they don’t always see everyone when they log into the same place. The development team will investigate this bug, but it appears to be related to those users who have not downloaded the latest Sansar client containing a hotfix.

A creator reported that they are experiencing some double-posting of comments in chat, which is speculated to be related to a desyncing issue.

The camera view options in Sansar were discussed with one creator asking for an improved “bird’s eye” view. More camera controls are coming, according to Jason.

There was discussion about optimal frame rates in Sansar. Jason indicated that the recommended frame rate is 150-180 FPS on desktop. 90 FPS per eye is hard-coded in VR mode, but heavily-populated experiences may experience lower performance. Ebbe indicated that there are several optimization features in development to further help performance, including LOD systems, chunking, and more.

Numerical precision in editing was discussed by several creators. For example, one creator asked if simple math functions (such as adding "+180" to an existing rotation) might eventually be supported in the numerical input fields. Another creator asked how to get better precision in editing. It was suggested that the creator could scale or shrink their avatar down in size in VR, to get even better numerical precision when editing objects.

Some creators are anxiously awaiting the arrival of keyframe animation in Sansar. In addition, many creators cited the desire for support of dynamic cloth that allows clothing to move naturally on avatars.

Jason indicated that keyframe animation will be easier once Sansar allows importing of keyframe animation via FBX. He cited the struggles and inefficient internal workflow processes involved in getting some animation effects in the sample Sansar Studios experiences.

Ultimately, the Sansar team wants to be careful in what they release to the creator community, so that it is more polished and efficient. There also needs to be consideration of how the experience performance will be impacted by the introduction of these features.

During the second meeting, participants toured several creator experiences alongside members of the Sansar team. Creators were able to get immediate feedback and answers to questions about their creations during the tour.